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Celebrate Spring with these crispy and buttery Cherry Blossom Cookies with salt pickled cherry blossoms.
Spring in Japan is so beautiful and magical. All the hills and parks are covered with pink and white cherry blossom trees, and many of them adorn city streets as well.
To celebrate the beauty of cherry blossoms, I shared my Cherry Blossom Milk Pudding recipe last week, and this week I want to share Cherry Blossom Cookies with you.
Watch How To Make Cherry Blossom Cookies
Enjoy crispy and buttery cherry blossom cookies with salt pickled cherry blossoms, decorate the side of cookies with sparkling sugar for an elegant look and taste.
Cherry Blossom Cookies with Salt Pickled Sakura
Many of you probably didn’t know that cherry blossoms (sakura in Japanese) are actually edible. In Japan, we preserve them with salt so they can be used in various dishes. However, it’s not as simple as just sprinkling salt over the blossoms. The whole preserving process takes place over several weeks.
Tender young buds are hand-picked, washed, and dried. They are then soaked in ume plum vinegar for several days before being dried completely. Finally, they are packed in jars or packages with salt.
I think it will be fun to make them from scratch one day. For those of us who are not lucky enough to have cherry blossoms around us, we can purchase them from this online store that ships internationally!
Buttery, Slightly Salty, Cherry Blossom Cookies
These cherry blossom cookies are butter cookies, or you may know them as shortbread cookies or sable cookies. They are unleavened cookies, which means that leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda are not used in the recipe.
They consist of just butter, sugar, and flour and often flavored with vanilla. We use salt pickled cherry blossoms in this recipe, so it adds just enough saltiness essence to the rich, buttery cookies. You can smell and taste the cherry blossoms, which is the highlight of these cookies.
The texture of the cookies is “crisp” rather than chewy or soft cookies. It is commonly necessary to chill the dough for easy handling. The chilled dough will give clean, sharp edges for the cookies and holds its shape better in the oven.
Usually, for this type of cookies, you roll the dough into a cylindrical shape, chill, and then slice into rounds (or roll out the dough, chill, and cut out).
Ingredients Substitution
Powder Sugar vs. Granulated Sugar
I’ve made butter cookies with both sugar and they both work, so you can experiment and decide. I used powder sugar for this recipe because I read some article that granulated sugar in butter cookies would not dissolve completely while being baked. Given that butter cookies don’t contain liquid, the cookies would wind up with a rough texture.
Cake Flour vs. All Purpose Flour
Again, you can make butter cookies with either flour. Butter cookies are meant to be somewhat crumbly because they have a high butter (fat) content. If you use all-purpose flour, they will be a little more sturdy than the ones made with cake flour (a mix of both would be best). Cake flour gives light texture, and I think it fits better with this cherry blossom recipe. So I opted cake flour for this recipe. In Japanese, we say this texture saku saku (サクサク).
Sparkling Sugar
White sparkling sugar can be replaced with granulated sugar. Sparkling sugar has larger grain so that it won’t melt and disappear while being baked. It adds a particular look as well as nice crunch when you bite into it.
Recipes Using Salt Pickled Cherry Blossoms
Use salt pickled cherry blossoms this spring to make these delicious and pretty recipes! Happy spring!
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- 113 g unsalted butter (113 g = 4 oz, 1 stick) (softened)
- 30 g salt pickled cherry blossoms (1 pack)
- 120 g cake flour (120 g = 1 cup) (See Notes)
- pinch kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt)
- 60 g confectioners’ sugar/powder sugar (60 g = ½ cup)
- 1 large egg yolk (1 egg yolk = 15 g)
- White sparkling sugar (See Notes)
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Gather all the ingredients.
- Cut the unsalted butter into smaller pieces (so that they will soften faster). It’s important to soften the butter before we start.
- Separate salt pickled cherry blossoms to 2 groups: good flowers for decoration on the cookies, and 1 Tbsp. of damaged flowers for blending in the cookie dough.
- To remove saltiness, soak each group of flowers in water (separately) for at least 30 minutes.
- Squeeze water out from 1 Tbsp. of damaged flowers and pat dry with paper towel.
- Then mince the flowers and set aside.
- Pick up the good flowers from the water, shape the petals nicely, and place the each flower on paper towel. Cover with another sheet of paper towel and gently pat dry. Set aside.
- Sift the cake flour and add the salt in the same bowl.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy.
- Add the ½ cup powder sugar and blend until soft and light. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
- Add the egg yolk and mix well until combined.
- Gradually add 1 cup cake flour and blend until the dough is smooth.
- Add minced cherry blossoms and blend well.
- Because the dough will be still too soft to roll into a log shape, cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or take out the dough from the bowl and wrap with plastic wrap) and keep in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Shape the dough into a cylinder, about 1.5 inches (4 cm) diameter.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours. Optional; you can place the dough on a bed of rice while chilling. It’ll help keep the dough in nice cylindrical shape, so your cookie slices won’t be flat on one side.
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Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 ºC) degrees. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking liner.
- Remove the plastic wrap, and then wrap around the dough with a damp paper towel so that the dough will be slightly wet. Or of course, you can use traditional method and brush egg wash on the dough (but damp paper towel method works every time for me).
- In a tray that fits the cookie dough, sprinkle the white sparkling sugar. Remove the damp paper towel and roll the cookie log on the sparkling sugar.
- With a sharp knife, slice the dough into 1/3 inches (7 mm)-thick rounds. Place them on the baking sheet, leaving about 1” (2.5 cm) between rounds.
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Gently press down the reserved cherry blossom and decorate on the cookie rounds. Tip: If the cookies are left out too long, place in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes until the cookies are chilled (or the freezer for a short time); otherwise, the butter melts too quickly in the oven and the cookies will be flat.
-
Bake the cookies at 350 ºF (170 ºC) for about 15 minutes, or until the edge of the cookies start to get golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes; then carefully transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
- If you pack the cookies in an airtight container, they will keep for at least 4 days. You can also freeze the unbaked logs of dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 months. Let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before cutting and baking. Do not let the dough fully defrost.
Prep Time does not include inactive time for soaking cherry blossoms (30 minutes), and chilling the dough (2 hours).
White Sparkling Sugar: It can be replaced with granulated sugar. Sparking sugar has large grain so that it won't melt and disappear. It gives nice look as well as nice crunch when you bite to it.
Cake Flour: A properly measured cup of cake flour weighs 4.25 oz (120 g). The weight for 1 cup flour varies on how you measure it. When you measure flour by volume, please follow the methods below. I’ve tested this method many times, and if you do it properly, 1 cup is VERY close to 120 g each time.
1. Fluff up the flour several times with a spoon.
2. Using the spoon, sprinkle the flour into your dry measuring cup (the one that measures exactly a cup at the top).
3. Scrape off the excess with a knife.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Beautiful cookies! I can’t wait to try to make them ????
Thank you Anne! Hope you enjoy! 🙂
Tried and enjoyed your recipes – so easy to follow with the videos!????
Thank you so much for trying my recipes! I’m so happy to hear you like them! 🙂
I definitely want to try these! How long will the salted blossoms keep before you have to use them?
Hi Linda! One year without opening. Usually package comes in small, so you might use it all, or at least more than half. Keep it in an airtight package and I kept in the fridge or freezer. 🙂
Can you use ume in se of sakura flowers? Like the honey ume.
Hi Susan! Hmm… that’s actually a good question. First, you have to love umeboshi. And you can’t put too much… I think it’s possible. I just never tried it before so it’s hard to imagine the flavor… If you try, let me know. 🙂
Can I not add egg yoke? I have a friend is a vegetarian. Thanks!
Hi Eve! I highly recommend to check eggless shortbread / butter cookie / sable recipes (there are some online) to see how they sub eggs. I’m not too familiar with eggless option, and you know baking is like science… you can’t just take out the egg yolk from this recipe. But you can follow the same method for cherry blossom part. 🙂
Hi Cat! I know, international shipping is awesome! 🙂
I never would have thought cherry blossoms could be eaten. The taste must be wonderful.
Hi Linda! It’s often enjoyed it as Sakura Tea for weddings. Yes, it tastes wonderful. 🙂
I am ridiculously excited to make these cookies. I ordered 2 packets since i will want to share these and spread the sakura love!!
Hi Tanya! He he he, I know what you mean. They are so cute! And we can eat them… so fun! Hope you enjoy this recipe! Thank you for spreading sakura love with me! 🙂
I just placed an order for the salt pickled sakura from Nihon Ichiban! Can’t wait to get them 🙂
Hi Ker-Yng! Hope you enjoy making these cookies! 🙂
Nami,
I plan to try this recipe tomorrow. Do you know if there is any problem with doubling the size of the recipe? I need more cookies than the single recipe makes. I have all the ingredients.
Janna
Hi Janna! Sure it works! 🙂
Hi Nami, do you think I can add matcha powder into the mixture? Is there anything I should adjust? I am a huge fan of matcha AND sakura!! 🙂
Hi Samantha! If you add 1 tsp. matcha, you shouldn’t worry about changing the amount. 🙂 Hope you enjoy these cookies! 🙂
Hi Namiko, the recipe says that it serves 16-18. Is that 16-18 cookies rather than 16-18 people?
Hi Winnie! Sorry, I should added “cookies”. It’s hard to say 16 to 18 people without knowing how many each eats. I’ll edit the recipe with “cookies” now.
Hi in step 14 the dough is still wet to roll into cyclinder shape? May I know why? Isn’t alright if I add more cake flour in it? Tks!
Hi Susan! Yes, if it’s still quite wet, you can add a little bit. If you blend and mix a little bit longer (if you’re not using stand mixer, it might take some time to combine), sometimes it gets smoother. If it doesn’t happen, you can add the flour. Hope this helps!
Hello
I ammolanning on doing this recipe formmy daughter’s birthday. If I make it one day ahead of the party will the flowers stay pink? And how do I preserve them? Thanks
Hi Mirna! Yeah it will stay pink. You want to make sure to cool down completely and then put them in an airtight containers. Happy Birthday to your daughter! Hope she has a wonderful birthday!
Hi Nami, I live in Australia and things like Sakura (salted or otherwise….) are really rare, and I was wondering if you knew how much salted Sakura is in Japan?My aunt is going to Japan in a month, and I was wondering if I should just ask her to bring me some or buy it online. Factoring in possible immigration issues… what would your opinion be?
This looks suuuuper tasty btw, inspired me to want Sakura ( ´ ▽ ` )
あるがとうございました!
Hi Mary! I added the link in my post and recipe that will ship internationally from Japan. 🙂 It’s pretty affordable too.
https://anything-from-japan.com/pickled-sakura-cherry-blossoms-30g
Sorry for my late response. I was traveling last week… ありがとう!
Hi Nami~ I’ve been planning to make these beautiful cookies since this post and was so excited that spring is here. But the Nihon Ichiban store lost my shipment and won’t respond to me. Where else can I buy these salt pickled sakura? Thank you for always inspiring me to cook Japanese. Love your recipes
Hi Lucy! That’s not right, you purchased and didn’t receive it right? I have Nicolas’s email (nicolas.soergel @ chinriu.com – remove 2 spaces). Try email him. He’s usually good at responding unless he’s traveling.
Other options on Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2oJ2OoH
http://amzn.to/2pPfjgo
But the price is not as good though. Let me know if I could help you with anything… 🙂
Hi Nami!
I wanted to try this recipe for a while. Fortunately, the pickled sakura what I ordered arrived last week, just in time! And the perfect opportunity has come too.
The language school, where I study in Japanese, celebrated its tenth anniversary yesterday. As a part of the celebration there was also a cake baking contest. I made three kind of cakes: dorayaki, green tea cookies and this one. Despite I was out of competition and I made the cakes just for fun I won! That is, this Sakura cookie got the first place! So it was. 🙂
This sweets is easy to made, delicious and really elegant. And another good opportunity to try new and extraordinary raw materials. It was a great pleasure for me to make these cookies and for those too who eat them. 😉
Thank you very much for the recipe(s)! I have to start thinking about what to make for Christmas.
Majacica
Hi Majacica! How wonderful! I’m so happy to hear you won, and everyone got to enjoy these cookies and all your sweets! Thank you for writing your kind feedback. It made me very happy! 🙂
I just made these for thanksgiving but my dad loved them. A little salty from the flower but the cookie itself was yummy and crisp.
Hi Dedania! Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m happy to hear your dad enjoyed this recipe! If it was salty, soak in water for a little longer next time. 🙂
I tried baking these yesterday, they taste delicious with nice Sakura fragrance. But I had difficulty cutting the cookie as the dough sticks to the knife. I had chilled the dough in the fridge for almost 5 hours before cutting. What could be the reason? Another issue I faced was the Sakura flower dropping off after baking. I baked it using 150 degree bottom heat, fan-forced. Did I use the wrong method? Or do I need to make sure the flowers are damp? Thanks for the lovely recipe.
Hi Linda! 1) When the dough sticks to the knife, was it cold? I was making similar cookies earlier today, and it was a cold dough I was cutting – and it does stick to knife but I can just remove it quickly by pushing with my finger. Was it too soft? I am curious how it was… It’s a cold block of dough, so it is not as smooth as how you cut vegetable or meat… 2) Next time, you gently press the flour into the dough a bit. and that should stay in, not need to be damp. 🙂
I have made these cookies twice and they are delicious and beautiful! Thank you for this recipe! I won a prize at work in NYC during our Lunar New Year celebration.
I used colored raw sugar around the edges- so pretty!
Hi Anita! That’s amazing! Congratulations on the Lunar New Year prize! Whoo hooo! I love the colored sugar around the edges too, such a brilliant idea! So happy you liked the recipe. xo
I made these this past weekend for Hanami and they were AMAZING! Very gorgeous and super tasty (perfectly salty and not too sweet). Thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful recipe!
(My instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bisarq4n7PJ/?taken-by=gabdar22)
Hi Gabby! Thank you so much for trying this recipe and so happy to see your beautiful cookies! SUCCESS! Thank you for your kind feedback. Glad to hear you enjoyed them. 🙂 xo
OMG!!!!! These look amazing and so cute! Thank you for sharing a wonderful recipe and some interesting tidbits about Japanese culture with us! 😆
Thank you Jackie! I love these cookies. Not just the look, but the salty cherry blossom is great with sweet cookies. 🙂
This was a fun experience. I ordered the pickled cherry blossoms and followed the recipe instructions. These turned out very nicely. I will say that I used regular granulated sugar for the sparkly cookie edges but it turned out just fine.
I appreciate your sharing this recipe.
Hi Gail! Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it. Thanks for your kind feedback. xo 🙂
Hello, can I add sakura essence to the dough to enhance the flavor? Thank you! 🙂
Hi Yu Jie! Yes, you can. I haven’t tried it myself, so please gradually add and see how it goes! 🙂
Thank you!! 😊
I bought one of the Sakura Cherry Blossom Set Advanced last year, but never had a chance to use the products. I want to use them now, but I am not sure if they are still good and all the writing on the packages is in Japanese. I am thinking the Sakura Honey Syrup would still be good, but not sure about the other products – pickled sakura blossoms, sakura powder, sakura leaves and sakura paste. Would you be able to help me figure that out?
Thanks!
Virginia
Hi Virginia! Since you got it last year, I think it should be okay this year. But, if you can send me a picture of the package, etc, I can take a look. 🙂
Hi, good evening! I was wondering if the recipe would still work if I didn’t have a mixer? I’ve been wanting to make this forever but I only have access to beating by hand. I might be able to borrow a hand mixer if that would work, but would it turn out okay if I just used a whisk or spoon?
Thank you so much for your time! I’ve been using your recipes for years now and I’ve loved every one I’ve tried! Thanks so much for sharing your lovely meals! 😊🌸
Hello West! You can definitely make this without a stand mixer. A hand mixer is helpful. Make sure to bring the butter to room temperature so it’s easy to work with. 🙂
Thank you so much for trying out many of my recipes! Thank you!!!
We were supposed to be in Japan right now enjoying the Cherry Blossoms, but alas we are stuck at home instead. So I used the link, purchased a few packs of the flowers. They arrived pretty quickly actually. Anyways the cookies are a nice shortbread recipe with a little twist of the sakura, then topped with a flower. They are almost too pretty to eat. Thanks for the recipe
Hi David! I’m so sorry you had to cancel your trip to Japan. But I’m glad you’re safe at home. Thank you for trying this recipe! I love the saltiness that comes from the flower added to the cookies. Thank you for your kind feedback! xo
These cookies are absolutely delectable, so delicate and buttery! I’ve always had trouble with butter cookies but these were super easy. I put the dough in my freezer to get it super cold and they did not lose shape at all. I will be making these again!
Hi Ginny! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. xo
Have you tried Nestlady Cherry Blossoms? I tried this recipe last year with the Sakura blossoms from Chinriu Honten and they came out great but the newer brand contains twice as much for about the same price. The description though doesn’t say that it was pickled in ume vinegar…
Hi Diane! I had never heard of it but now I see it on Amazon. I didn’t try it myself so I won’t be able to recommend it. 🙂
thanks for the recipe- was looking for a baking project today and this fit the bill. Just as a question- instead of putting the dough on rice in the fridge for 2 hours have you ever tried wrapping the dough in a makisu ? seemed to work well for me and takes very little room
Hi Carol! Yeah, that should work if you have one!
I tried making the cherry blossom cookies but why do my cookies spread so much? It doesn’t keep its shape like yours. Any idea what went wrong?
Hi Wenny! I know why this happens; your cookies were left out too long before putting in the oven. Shortbread (butter) cookies need to be cool or chilled when placed in the oven. So if you take too much time on slicing and putting the cherry blossoms, I recommend putting back in the refrigerator. That way, the butter doesn’t melt too fast and retain the shape while the outer layer of cookies is cooked. I updated the recipe with this info.
I was wondering if there was a recipe for the dried salt pickled cherry blossoms. I would like to try. I have made the cookies without the blossoms, something I do to see how they work in my oven.
Thank you for the wonderful recipes, have a good day, 🙂
Robert
Hi Robert! Salt-pickled cherry blossoms are made with Yaezakura (八重桜), blossoms of more than five petals. They are carefully handpicked while the buds are still tender and young, then washed, drained and dried before they are sprinkled with salt. On the next day, the brine is squeezed out and the flowers are pickled in ume plum vinegar (梅酢) and let sit for about 3 days. Finally, they are dried in a single layer for another 3 days in the shade or until they are completely dried. To preserve, the blossoms are packed in a jar with salt. This way, they can be kept for one year. I do not have a recipe. I’m sorry…
May I know for baking of cookies what is the ideal mode with convention (fan) or nonconvention (without fan) and how does it affect the cookies/end result?